Something is Rotten in Manta Carlos

It was definitely shifty. There was no way to invite a coworker like Raphael over to your house without it feeling a bit weird.

Angelo had just kind of expected it was going to be weird no matter what.

He was dressed pretty casually--a T-shirt and jeans--when he greeted Raphael at the door, waving him in with what he hoped was a friendly smile. It wasn't. Not really. Raphael had worked with Angelo long enough that he'd no doubt be able to tell it was one of those smiles. The ones you got when something bad was going on.

"Hey Raph," Angelo said, gesturing down the hall. "Sorry to invite you over under such, uh, weird circumstances."

The kitchen was nice--not super fancy and a little bit untidy the way houses with teenagers tended to be. "You want a drink? I've got a bit of anything you want."

Angelo got them both beers, nice and cold from the fridge, and then guided Raphael down to his study. Dusty. Really dusty. More or less never used, and Angelo opted to ignore the fancy chair behind his desk, setting the two beers down on the desk and grabbing a seat in one of the two chairs in front of it.

"What'd you hear about the whole thing with Nick and me in the office? Not sure how much you heard, or how much went around."

He could appreciate Raph's discretion, and Angelo nodded.

"I definitely was. I left my office unlocked--I was literally just going to lunch--and came back to find him in there. Feet kicked up on my desk and everything. Caught me off guard, I asked him what he needed, and then he walked over and made some comments about how handsome I was and felt up my abs."

Angelo actually paused, a disgusted look on his face.

"Told him, very politely, to get the fuck out of my office, and then he did this whole thing about how we should get back to work like he was doing me a favor. I might have gone for it, except then he turned, looked at me, and told me he wouldn't touch me again unless I wanted him too, complete with wink."

It was ridiculous. Super ridiculous.

"So I went to HR and if HR is doing it's thing he's probably getting sexual harassment training, but one thing is one thing, right? Only it gets worse. You remember that whole Black Dragon gang? Black Wings?"

Of course he'd punned. He was Raph, of course he had a pun for the occasion.

Angelo popped the top of his beer, taking a swig.

"We're not," Angelo said. "He probably got told not to deal with me anymore. And the fact that you were second on the scene is why I asked you here."

He set down his beer, his face going serious as he got ready to drop the bomb.

"Remember how I interviewed Del Bosque? Only the faintest circumstantial evidence to tie her to the case. Nothing really there. She said she wasn't there, we don't have anything to say she was lying, right? Except here's the thing: Her bodyguard showed up today. Here. At my house. Because it turns out Nick Miller went over to see them. He made a bunch of thinly veiled threats, demanded to know why she was at the warehouse, and then he gave them this..."

Angelo got up from his chair, circling around the desk and pulling open a drawer, plucking out the cellphone and laying it on the desk for Raph to see. It was identical to the ones they'd collected at the scene, but missing the black wings logo.

"No prints, before you ask. I checked, and he checked."

This was the trick, wasn't it?

"You know how I've got Jude and the new kids? Bodyguard's a friend of theirs. Everything I know about him is that he's good to his word, because that's how he survived. And Christ, Raph, I'm not going to get into it but he had a very good pitch for why he cares about this specific thing."

One Angelo could have done without, if he was being honest.

"I'm not going to take his word on it. Not fully. But something's fucky. And here's my logic in the issue..."

Angelo settled into his chair, grabbing his beer and taking a swig before explaining.

"So, lets assume Nick's good. Completely legitimate. Why would he go and see Del Bosque? Why go ask her? There's no evidence. There's nothing to tie her to it. Why go barking up the tree when I've already barked up that tree? But then it goes into the bodyguard. His client was already off scott free with me. Why would he do something that explicitly makes me think she's involved? Because I do think she's involved. I think she's lying to me, and she was there, and it makes no goddamn sense that her bodyguard would go out of her way to put her in a worse situation. Even if he was trying to tie Nick's hands for a while, he'd have to be really fucking stupid to come up with this plan to do that."